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It took no longer than the announcement that Libya would host this year’s Arab League summit in late March for controversy to ensue. One of the League’s 22 member states has already threatened to boycott and, some would say, with good cause. It is the one Arab country in which Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qadhafi has not dared set foot for the past 32 years. That nation is Lebanon, and the circumstance that eventually led its judiciary to issue a warrant for Qadhafi’s arrest was the 1978 disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr. The complete biography and works of Moussa al-Sadr are beyond the scope of this article. What brings us to the present conflict between Lebanon and Libya however, centers around al-Sadr’s 1978 visit to Libya. In August of that year, he and two companions—Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine—flew from Beirut to Tripoli, Libya to meet Qadhafi and other government officials. They were never seen or heard from again.
Hundreds gathered in Gaza City on Thursday night to mark the 1,000th day of siege on the coastal enclave, lighting candles representing the thousands dead since the Israeli-led blockade began in 2007. The Popular Committee Against the Siege organized the vigil, encouraging those who lost loved ones to carry their photos in the streets as the rally took place in the Square of the Unknown Fighter. Others carried candles and banners calling for an end to the siege and a return to a life of dignity. Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of the popular committee, addressed those gathered. "We will never surrender," he said, stressing the strength of the people in the face of rights violations. He told men, women and children gathered in the square that it was their right to demand and end to the unjust blockade, even if it meant facing Israeli weapons. "On this day we mark a thousand days of siege and a thousand days of patience and determination," he said.
The former U.N. nuclear chief turned Egyptian reform advocate on Thursday strongly condemned the beating of one of his supporters, allegedly by State Security agents, adding that the tactic would not silence calls for change. Mohamed ElBaradei said in a statement received by The Associated Press from his group that the beating is a blatant violation of all laws and called for bringing the perpetrators to justice. Taha Abdel-Tawab, a 36-year old physiotherapist, attempted to organize a rally last week in support of ElBaradei in the oasis province of Fayoum. The gathering was stopped by security and he was detained, interrogated and beaten, according to his lawyer. "I condemn in the strongest words the barbaric assault this innocent citizen has been subjected to," ElBaradei said in a statement from South Korea, where he is visiting. "These actions will not under any condition scare, terrorize or silence our people." "Such uncivilized methods are a blatant violation of all laws and customs and the perpetrators should be held accountable before local and international courts," his statement added.
Through Avatar I lived the story of the Palestinian, Iraqi, Afghan and Lebanese peoples and the wars waged against them; where the West treats these peoples as if they were the children of the “Navi” tribe with their blue clothes in their planet Pandora. Settlers landed on planet Pandora driven by the greed for its wealth. Their calculations were focused on the material gains which they can only get through possessing the land and its natural resources. To be able to do that they had either to kill or expel the Navi who are tied to their land, nature, holy tree and their customs which show equal respect to human life and nature, in bleak contrast to the attitude of the invading settlers who mock sanctities and human respect for nature. They only see the things which give them large amounts of money. This contrast between the values of two cultures is at the essence of the creation of Israel. For seventy years, it has killed the Palestinians on a daily basis, Judaized their holy places, settled their land, confiscated their water, uprooted their trees, mocked their beliefs, their commitment to their land and their way of life.
Fourteen years on, Shaikh Mansour Leghaei is still being denied the basic human right to natural justice. Since 1996, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) has labeled him as a threat to national security, but to date, it has failed – in fact, refused – to provide the slightest bit of evidence to support this claim. ASIO insists he is an Iranian 'operative' and has knowledge of a French terrorist organisation by the name of Ahlul Bait. Based on such entirely groundless allegations, Shaikh Leghaei's final application to remain in Australia has now been rejected, his bridging visa cancelled, and he has been given 28 days to leave the country. "The courts said that since I can't be briefed about the allegations against me, I can't defend myself, and if I can't defend myself, there was no point in wasting the time of the court," Shaikh said. The accused is charged with allegations but is not told why. He will consequently have no basis to defend himself, and therefore the hearing is dismissed.
Originally designed for battlefield surveillance and reconnaissance, albeit often to call in lethal military strikes, drones have been employed by the U.S. since 2001 to identify and kill human targets. The first "hunter-killer" unmanned combat air vehicle, the Predator, was used by the Pentagon in Bosnia in 1995 and later in the 78-day air war against Yugoslavia in 1999. The Predator and its successor, the Reaper, capable of carrying fifteen times more weaponry and flying at three times the speed, have been used for deadly attacks in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and with particularly murderous effect in Pakistan since the autumn of 2008. They are equipped with cameras connected by satellite links to bases in the United States. The United States has not only increased its arsenal of unmanned aerial vehicles by twenty five times over the past decade, it has massively increased the range and lethality of its hunter-killer drones. A recent report disclosed that beginning in 2008 the Air Force Research Laboratory started to "build the ultimate assassination robot," described as "a tiny, armed drone for U.S. special forces to employ in terminating 'high-value targets.'"
Palestinians came face to face with Oslo’s failure. This was intensified during the second intifada, the destruction of Jenin, the confinement of Arafat the mayhem in Ramallah and the long list of corruption charges against the PA. It was against this backdrop that the Palestinians went to the polls in 2006 and voted Oslo out by voting Hamas in. The West and Israel boycotted the newly elected government but knew that they needed to reinvent their approach of pacifying the Palestinians through a system of economic dominance. It was then that Bush’s West Bank First Policy began. The underlying assumption of this policy is to reward so called “moderates” in the WB and engage them with promises of economic prosperity in hope that full stomachs will mean a tame population.
There were chuckles and sniggers in Qatar last month when Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, warned that a military dictatorship was imminent in Iran. Threatening America's most intransigent adversary, Clinton seems to have been oblivious to her audience: educated Arabs in the Middle East where America's military presence has long propped up several dictators, including such stalwart allies in rendition and torture as Hosni Mubarak. Of course, by her own standards, Clinton was being remarkably nuanced and sober: during the presidential campaign in 2008 she promised to "obliterate" Iran. An over-eager cheerleader of the Bush administration's serial bellicosity, Clinton exemplifies Barack Obama's essential continuity with previous US foreign policymakers – despite the president's many emollient words to the contrary. Clinton has also "warned" China with an officiousness redolent of the 1990s when her husband, with some encouragement from Tony Blair, tried to sort out the New World Order. But the illusions of western power that proliferated in the 90s now lie shattered.
Ayatollah Khamenei the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution met this morning with the Minister of Culture and the cultural attaches of the Islamic Republic. Speaking at the meeting, His Eminence said that presenting a true image of the Islamic Republic and the achievements are among the major duties of the Islamic Republic's cultural attaches. Ayatollah Khamenei said that providing an appropriate definition of Islam is one of the prerequisites of presenting a true image of the Islamic Republic. He further reiterated that that the ill-wishers and the arrogant powers are trying to present an image of Islam which is reactionary or liberalist. "But pure Islam introduces deep, lofty, and clear concepts of humanity, God, the hereafter, and material as well as spiritual needs of humanity."
